Australia’s new 40-year economic outlook, published by the Treasury on Monday, identifies artificial intelligence as one of five major transitions expected to profoundly impact the economy, while omitting any mention of cryptocurrency or digital assets. The report describes agentic AI systems as having become significantly more capable and autonomous, surpassing human-level performance on some benchmarks. These AI developments are listed alongside geopolitical conflicts, an aging population, the shift to clean energy, and Australia’s industrial transformation toward services.
Coinbase Australia country director John O’Loghlen criticized the omission, stating that while the report focuses heavily on AI, it misses the financial infrastructure required for those agents. Previous Intergenerational Reports have also excluded digital assets, even though the Reserve Bank of Australia has increased its focus on tokenized finance earlier this year. Additionally, the Digital Finance Cooperative Research Centre estimated that digital finance innovations could generate 24 billion Australian dollars ($17.1 billion) in annual economic gains. A separate Treasury document, the Financial Innovation Strategy released on Sept. 3, does address the link between AI and financial infrastructure, noting that agentic systems will increase demand for real-time, interoperable payment systems.
The exclusion of crypto from the primary Intergenerational Report suggests a strategic prioritization by the Australian government, focusing immediate long-term economic planning on productivity drivers like AI rather than emerging asset classes. This decision contrasts with the substantial potential economic value attributed to digital finance by local research bodies, indicating a divergence between official policy emphasis and industry-estimated opportunities. While the Treasury acknowledges the technological convergence of AI and finance in secondary strategies, the main outlook’s silence may signal that digital assets remain peripheral to core national prosperity narratives compared to established sectors like energy and demographics.
For institutional participants, this regulatory landscape highlights a gap between high-level economic vision and operational infrastructure needs. Coinbase’s call for clear rules on stablecoins and tokenized markets underscores the industry’s concern that without explicit integration into the primary economic framework, necessary legal and technical rails may lag behind AI adoption rates. Stakeholders should monitor whether future updates to the Financial Innovation Strategy translate into concrete legislative action, as the current separation risks leaving the financial infrastructure for agentic economies underdeveloped relative to the technology itself.
